Kids Spell Love TIME
Reminder:
Kids spell love TIME not MONEY
I’m not an expert, all my kids are young and I’m still genuinely just trying to stay afloat in this wild journey of balancing entrepreneurship and full time work…
… partly for a selfish pursuit of greatness … partly because I want to provide MORE for them than I had … and partly because I want them to catch me in the act of excellence.
But that doesn’t erase the longggg days and late nights and frustrating scenarios, the times I’m short with them or on a call or “need 5 more minutes”
EVERY time I put them second it hurts. I don’t believe there’s perfect balance, but instead shifted focus. Again, i haven’t figured that out either.
But if you read this far, here’s a story that hit HARD with me today.
A coworker of mine that has been a cop for more years than I’ve been alive just had a falling out with his only daughter. Here’s the story:
(if you don’t know, being a cop for anything over 20-25 years is gnarly. I just turned 34)
Shortly after she got married, she sent him an email pretty much telling him that he was an embarrassment to her.
She felt unloved.
She felt that he didn’t do enough for her at her wedding.
I’ll spare you the details, but as he stood there with tears telling me about this and telling me how he had contributed money to the wedding and helped them with a home loan and a handful of other financial transactions, I couldn’t help but think that whatever distance that exists beteeen them, started long ago… and that money to his daughter is meaningless.
Of course I want to be widely successful and build incredible things and provide the WORLD for my family, but not at the expense of my relationship with them.
No dad INTENDS for this to happen. But it does sometimes.
So what can you do?
Well, I don’t have the answers and hindsight is always 20/20
But here’s my hot take:
Love without conditions. And tell them that ALL THE TIME
Explain to them what you’re building and why you’re doing it. They might not fully understand it at first, but keeping them in the know will help open their eyes and teach them valuable lessons
The work has to stop at some point. Whenever you block it out, they want YOUR TIME. Put down your phone and engage
Plan solo times with each of them. Just you and ONE child. Go somewhere special, do something fun, do this regularly
Start each day new. Kids are resilient. Don’t rest on that, BUT just know that today is brand new and tomorrow is too.
I believe this was important enough to record an audio version of it. 🤙🏻
For all my busy entrepreneurial parents out there, this is a story worth listening to.
I believe this was important enough to record an audio version of it. 🤙🏻
— Kevin Bell 🍩 (@kevinasrx) March 26, 2025
For all my busy entrepreneurial parents out there, this is a story worth listening to. pic.twitter.com/Un7RRfLwSe